LANSING, Mich. -- Twice facing elimination on Saturday at the GLIAC Tournament, the Wayne State University baseball team (27-27 overall) took care of business against both Saginaw Valley State (30-22 overall) and defending tournament champion, No. 8 Grand Valley State (41-12 overall). The third-seeded Warriors held on to oust the fifth-seeded Cardinals 7-6 before eliminating the second-seeded Lakers 3-1 in 10 innings. WSU will need to defeat top-seeded and 16th-ranked Davenport twice on Sunday to claim their second tournament title in three seasons.
GAME ONE
Wayne State opened the scoring with a four spot in the bottom of the first inning.
Mason McGuire (Lyon Twp., Mich. / Brighton [Mott CC]) singled in
Jacoby Dale (Roseville, Mich. [Spring Arbor/Henry Ford CC]) before
Aidan Arbogast (Livonia, Mich. / Livonia Stevenson [Mid-Michigan C.C. / Kellogg C.C. / Eastern Michigan]) hit a three-run home run to left field. That blast tied Arbogast for the team lead with six and marked his third bomb in the last seven games.
Saginaw Valley State got two of those runs back in the top of the sixth before the Warriors made the score 7-2 in the home half. First,
Noah Murciano (Richmond Hill, Ont. / Bill Crothers S.S. [Sussex County C.C. / Coppin State]) forced in
Caleb Sanders (Eastpointe, Mich. / Detroit Edison Public School Academy [Dayton]) with a base knock to left.
Then, with
Drew Hill (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Pointe North) on third base and Murciano on second following a wild pitch, in stepped Dale. The center fielder proceeded to single to right, Hill scored and the right fielder committed a fielding error, which allowed Murciano came around to score as well.
The Cardinals notched four runs in the eighth and slimmed the margin to one (7-6), but the scoring stayed put right there.
Nick Baker (Brighton, Mich. [Lansing CC]) garnered the victory (3-1) and matched the longest outing of his career with five innings (happened three times prior). Baker gave up two earned runs on three hits without a walk and one strikeout.
First out of the bullpen,
Macio Miller (Kimball, Mich. / Marysville [Jackson CC]) worked a pair of frames. Miller allowed four earned runs on three hits with two free passes and two punchouts.
Setting up for the back end of the bullpen,
Coy Plummer (New Hudson, Mich. / South Lyon) retired a pair of batters with two hits, no walks and one strikeout.
Ethan Getting (Kalamazoo, Mich. / Portage Northern [Purdue Northwest]) then collected the four-out save, his fifth of the year. Getting didn't surrender a single hit with one free pass and a punchout.
GAME TWO
Simply put, Wayne State starter
Keegan Pulford-Thorpe (Aurora, Ont. / Newmarket [Central Florida / Georgia Highlands College]) turned in the best outing of his career.
Having never pitched more than four and two-thirds innings in a collegiate game before, Pulford-Thorpe made it through eight frames against Grand Valley State. The left-hander gave up just the one earned run on three hits with six walks and four strikeouts on 118 pitches. The veteran southpaw even had a no-hitter intact through the first five and two-thirds.
Getting took over with one on, nobody out and a 1-1 score in the bottom of the ninth. He proceeded to work a pair of scoreless innings with three punchouts, no free passes and two hits next to his name.
Offensively, the Warriors went ahead 1-0 in the fifth when McGuire doubled in Sanders. The Lakers evened the tally up at 1-1 in the seventh, which gave way for the fireworks in the top of the 10th.
Reagan Paulina (Highland, Mich. / Detroit Catholic Central [Oakland]) led off with a walk before
Bennett Hitzelberger (Richmond, Mich.) put runners on first and second with a bunt single right back to the pitcher.
Sanders then singled in Paulina for the go-ahead run. Following another bunt single, this time by McGuire, Dale's groundout to the first baseman brought in Hitzelberger and made the score 3-1.
